A Time for Truth , a Path to Healing

Our Church today is suffering, having been wounded not from outside, but from within. There are reliable reports of ministers violating their vows, betraying their vocations, and victimizing others. There are plausible charges that some in authority have ignored crimes, abetted deceptions, and failed in their duty to protect the most vulnerable.

Our hearts cry out for truth and for justice. Jesus said, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."We can pray that this season of suffering will become a time of truth and of clarity, so that new light will break into our darkness, and we can find a path toward healing for all members of the Body of Christ.

Recent videos

Archbishop Cordileone speaks at U.S. Bishops Meeting November 13, 2018

Listening Session October 19, 2018: St. Stephen's Church, San Francisco

Listening Sessions and Shared Prayer for All

In his letter of September 21, 2018, to the people of the Archdiocese, Archbishop Cordileone invited us to come together to share our thoughts, speak our needs, and offer our prayers. As his letter says, in part: "During this time of rightful righteous indignation among our people, it is more important than ever that we, your leaders, listen to you." Five listening sessions in September and October were scheduled and have taken place.

The Archbishop also designated three successive First Fridays for priests to dedicate themselves to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and to serious bodily fasting. On Saturday, December 15, all lay faithful, deacons, and religious were invited to join with our priests in communal prayer.

Archbishop's Letters to the People

Letter of November 15, 2018 (English)

THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO
OFFICE OF THE ARCHBISHOP
ONE PETER YORKE WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109-6602
(415) 614-5609 FAX (415) 614-5601

November 15, 2018

My Dear People of the Archdiocese of San Francisco,

As I write this message to you, I am in Baltimore, Maryland, for the plenary assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. I can tell you I came prepared to work with my fellow bishops to move aggressively forward in dealing with the abuse issues that are confronting our Church right now, and will continue to do so.

I was surprised along with everyone else at the announcement that Pope Francis requested the U.S. bishops to delay implementing any new provisions until after he meets in February with the presidents of the various Bishop Conferences throughout the world. While this initially came as a disappointment, we have to trust the wisdom of our Holy Father, who sees the wider vision of the Universal Church. As St. Paul says, we are all members of the Body of Christ, and whatever happens with any one member affects the whole body. Any decision of the U.S. bishops will likely have a felt impact in other countries throughout the world. While we in the United States are feeling some impatience over this, it is good that we move together on it with our wider family of faith, under the direction of the Shepherd of the Universal Church. In the meantime, we, your bishops in the United States, will continue to make provisions locally that are within our competence, while maintaining unity with the Bishop of Rome.

At the level of our own Archdiocese, as many of you know I have recently completed five town hall meetings held throughout the Archdiocese, as well as continued my consultations with advisors, our priests, and the Archdiocesan Independent Review Board (IRB). I want now to bring you up to date on my next course of action in our Archdiocese to deal with the crisis of faith many have described to me as caused by clergy sexual abuse and its mishandling.

First, I offer my sincere thanks to all those who came to the town hall meetings to share experiences, concerns and ideas for dealing with the crisis. Perhaps a total of 1,000 people attended these meetings, and another 1,000 have viewed a town hall video on-line. This video is still available at http://bit.ly/SFArchTownHall. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to John McCord, a member of the IRB and a victim-survivor himself of clergy sex abuse, who movingly shared his experiences as both a survivor and an IRB member at the town hall meetings.

At these public meetings, I shared factual information about cases of sexual abuse and misconduct within the Archdiocese over the past thirty years. Our preliminary review showed that in the 1990’s there were six instances of alleged abuse by clergy, and that there were three cases of abuse alleged to have occurred in the year 2000. There have been no allegations of any clergy abuse of minors said to have occurred since then.

In those town hall meetings I also spoke of the work of our Independent Review Board, whose duties include:

Advising the Archbishop on any allegations of sex abuse of minors by Church personnel;

Monitoring priests who have been removed from ministry for having abused minors (even if just once);

Our safe environment policies include background checks of all employees and volunteers who have regular contact with minors, on-line training of such employees and volunteers, as well as students in all of our schools and faith formation programs and their parents, on how to be alert to signs of abuse and how to report abuse. All Church personnel are informed that they are mandated reporters, and are trained on how to report abuse. You may read for yourselves all of our policies and procedures on our Archdiocesan website at https://sfarchdiocese.org/policies-index : scroll down to C5-C8.

Importantly, I am engaging an outside, independent consultant to review all priest personnel files held by the Archdiocese from 1950 to the present. That review will include any allegations received since that time and how they were handled. This will be a review of the files of perhaps 4,000 clergy personnel who have worked within the Archdiocese during that time period. This work will take a while, and when it is done I will report back the results to the Archdiocese.

Wednesday of last week, as I exited St. Patrick’s church after the Memorial Mass for the deceased homeless, a woman confronted me and asked me if I cared about children who are abused by priests. I told her that I care about all children who are abused, no matter who the abuser is. The scandal of sexual abuse of minors is not confined to the Church; it is rampant all throughout our society. I hope the experience of our Church will serve as a catalyst for all sectors of our society to deal more aggressively in rooting out this societal scourge. And while I find encouragement in the progress our own Church has made in trying to do so, there is still more to be done. We need always to be vigilant and never, ever become complacent. I therefore continue to take under consideration possible further responses and modifications to policies and procedures of our Archdiocese, in order to attend to the need for ongoing improvement in the way we handle this most grave responsibility of the Church and her ministers.

Thank you again for your prayers, for your love of the Church, and for your support of our priests.

Sincerely yours in our Lord, Most Reverend Salvatore Cordileone Archbishop of San Francisco

Letter of September 21, 2018 (English)

THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO
OFFICE OF THE ARCHBISHOP
ONE PETER YORKE WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109-6602
(415) 614-5609 FAX (415) 614-5601

September 21, 2018
Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle

Dear People of the Archdiocese of San Francisco,

In my letter to you of August 17, 2018, I explained that I would consult the Presbyteral Council of the Archdiocese and my Cabinet in order to determine how I would designate an act of reparation be conducted in the Archdiocese for the horrendous crimes of clerical sexual abuse. Since then, revelations have continued to unfold – especially with the publication of stories from the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report – which speak to the depth of the evil that occurred. The violations of sacred trust by those called to be spiritual fathers to God’s people fill us all with disgust and horror. Indeed, some of these incidents are nothing short of diabolical.

This is why our focus on the urgently needed reform in the Church must be on prayer and penance. As our Lord himself has said, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting” (Mk 9:29). At the same time, while this spiritual focus must always remain primary, there is more we have to do. During this time of rightful righteous indignation among our people, it is more important than ever that we, your leaders, listen to you. Therefore, in addition to the consultations I have already undertaken, I have also scheduled five opportunities for people in our Archdiocese to meet with me and speak to me directly. The schedule is as follows:

Sunday, September 30, 5:00 pm: St. Anthony, Novato

Sunday, October 7, 5:00 pm: St. Matthew, San Mateo

Wednesday, October 17, 7:00 pm: St. Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco

Thursday, October 18, 5:00 pm: St. Stephen, San Francisco

Sunday, October 28, 6:00 pm: Immaculate Heart of Mary, Belmont

Since the primary focus must always be on prayer, we will begin these sessions with praying the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours for the Evening Hour, Vespers. After that, those present will be able to ask questions and make comments. While I cannot claim to have all of the answers to the trials the Church is suffering at this time, I pledge to do my best to listen and respond.

After these meetings with you, and further consultations with our Archdiocesan Independent Review Board and my Cabinet, I will determine what further steps will be necessary to help bring about the desperately needed purification of our Church. I also take this opportunity to thank the members of the IRB for using their broad range of expertise from their diverse professional backgrounds for insuring accountability and transparency in handling both individual cases and general policies regarding the sexual abuse of minors by the Church’s ministers, and for their steadfast love of the Church. I find their insights and recommendations to be invaluable. I wish as well to express a special word of gratitude to our Victims’ Assistance Coordinator, Rocio Rodriguez, for her unwavering reliability in providing compassion and support to those who are survivors of clerical sexual abuse. For those who can benefit from this service provided by our Archdiocese, Rocio may be contacted at: rodriguezr@sfarchdiocese.org.

While we must continue to discern what practical measures in the temporal order must be taken in order to achieve the reform we all earnestly seek, we must remember that none of it will have the desired effect without help from above. Therefore, in light of the discussions I have had, I am designating three successive First Fridays of the month for our priests to dedicate themselves to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and to serious bodily fasting. Adoration will take place from 9:00am to 6:00pm on October 5, November 2 and December 7, and priests are asked to sign up for at least one hour (and preferably more if they can) of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on those days at one of the following locations:

St. Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco

St. Isabella Parish, San Rafael

St. Matthew Parish, San Mateo

On December 15th, these locations will host Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for you, our lay faithful, deacons and religious, to join with your priests in prayer, from 10:00am to 12:00 noon. Of course, you are also welcome to join them if you wish on any of the other three days of Adoration. Moreover, in light of the discussion at the Presbyteral Council meeting, I also ask our priests to take up a specific act of charity sometime during the week in which the First Friday occurs in October, November and December.

It is clear to me that our prayer and sacrifices must be offered up for the renewal of the Church. Most especially, we must pray for those who have been abused at the hands of clerics: they are the victims of the deepest betrayal imaginable, and more than anyone else need and deserve our support and care. It is also clear to me that we must be offering prayer and sacrifices for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, as well. God has entrusted the pastoral governance of the Universal Church to him at a particularly tumultuous time, and now more than ever he needs our love and support, and our prayers that God will give him the wisdom and stamina he needs to guide His people on the path of holiness during this time of great trial.

Finally, I ask that you keep your priests uppermost in your prayers. They are the laborers who bear “the burden of the day and the scorching heat” (Mt 12:20), and I remain deeply grateful to them for the pastoral care and support they provide to you, the People of God. Please pray for me, too.

Letter of August 29, 2018 (English)

THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO
OFFICE OF THE ARCHBISHOP
ONE PETER YORKE WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109-6602
(415) 614-5609 FAX (415) 614-5601

August 29, 2018

Dear Faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco,

Last Sunday witnessed what many are calling a “bombshell” in the Church: the publication of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s “Testimony,” alleging corruption and cover-up at all levels of the Church based on his long and extensive personal knowledge.

I came to know Archbishop Viganò well during the years he served as Apostolic Nuncio here in the United States. I can attest that he is a man who served his mission with selfless dedication, who fulfilled well the Petrine mission entrusted to him by the Holy Father to “strengthen his brothers in the faith,” and who would do so at great personal sacrifice and with absolutely no consideration given to furthering his “career” – all of which speaks to his integrity and sincere love of the Church. Moreover, while having no privileged information about the Archbishop McCarrick situation, from information I do have about a very few of the other statements Archbishop Viganò makes, I can confirm that they are true. His statements, therefore, must be taken seriously. To dismiss them lightly would continue a culture of denial and obfuscation. Of course, to validate his statements in detail a formal investigation will have to be conducted, one that is thorough and objective. I am therefore grateful to Cardinal DiNardo for recognizing the merit of finding answers that are “conclusive and based on evidence,” and I join my voice to that of other bishops in calling for such an investigation and for taking any corrective action that may be necessary in light of its findings.

I was named a bishop on July 5, 2002, three weeks after the USCCB meeting in Dallas that approved the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, and still at the height of the drama of revelations of sex abuse of minors by clergy.

At that time, I was asked to conduct a prayer service at the conclusion of a conference on family life hosted by the diocese that attracted participants from around the world. I met there an Australian priest with whom I was acquainted during our years of study in Rome, and he congratulated me on my appointment. I replied, “Thank you, but this is not a good time to become a bishop.” I will never forget his response to me: “But it is a good time to be a great bishop.” Letter to the Faithful August 29, 2018.

What he said to me then can be said to every Catholic at this time. The Church is in need of purification. Purification is always painful. My dear victims: you know this more than anyone; please know of our prayers and love for you, and that we continue to be here for you, to support you and help you to heal with the resources we have available.

I believe God is beginning this painful process of purification for us now, but for it to work, we must cooperate. God has always raised up great saints in similar times of turmoil in the Church. I call on all of us to rededicate ourselves to prayer, penance and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, so that God will bless us with this grace.

Please know of my gratitude to you all: to you our priests, who remain close by your people, lending them support and pastoral care in this time of crisis; to you our deacons, who assist priests in this responsibility and bring the Gospel to those for whom it would otherwise be inaccessible; to you our victims assistance coordinators and to all who support victims on the painful path toward healing; to the faculty and administration of St. Patrick’s Seminary for your hard work in providing deep and healthy formation for our future priests for the renewal of the Church in our corner of the Lord’s vineyard, and to our seminarians for your fervor and generosity in responding to the Lord’s call of priestly service; and last but not least, to you, our people, for your prayer, for your love and concern for the Church, which now moves you to demand change that is effective and decisive, and for your support of our priests.

May God grant us all the grace to be the agents of change and purification that He is calling us to be at this time.

Letter of August 17, 2018 (English)

THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO
OFFICE OF THE ARCHBISHOP
ONE PETER YORKE WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109-6602
(415) 614-5609 FAX (415) 614-5601

August 17, 2018

My Dear People of the Archdiocese of San Francisco,

The recent reports of episcopal negligence and malfeasance in the face of clerical sexual abuse, coupled with some reports of bishops themselves guilty of sexual predation, have reopened old wounds and inflicted new ones on victims, their families, the Catholic faithful at large, and indeed, the larger society. This has been further fueled by a spirit of raw ambition on the part of some, who will stop at nothing to advance their careers and climb the ecclesial corporate ladder over investing themselves in serving the people of God. Such behavior on the part of Church leaders is despicable, reprehensible, and absolutely unbecoming of a man of God.

I have emphasized this point to the seminarians of our Archdiocese in my recent summer meetings with them, and made it very clear that their vocation as diocesan priests is to serve God’s people where they are most needed in our local church. This was not difficult to do. I am inspired by their purity of motivation, their great love for Christ and his Church, and their desire to be faithful servant leaders.

I have been in conversation with the administration at St. Patrick Seminary, who have conducted a review of their policies on issues involving sexual abuse and harassment. While the policies are thorough, I intend to discuss with the Seminary and its Board of Trustees ideas on how to more effectively implement these policies and ensure that they are followed. I intend to do the same with regard to the policies of the Archdiocese with my Cabinet at the Pastoral Center. These policies, and information on how to report abuse, are available on our Archdiocesan website (https://sfarchdiocese.org/protecting-children).

While attending to policies and procedures is necessary, by itself it is really superficial. What is called for at this time is penance in reparation for sins against faith and morals. This is how we keep the righteous indignation that so many of us feel at this time from becoming an anger that divides the Body of Christ.

Last year, in response to a request from some of the faithful of our Archdiocese, I consecrated the Archdiocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This was on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of our Lady at Fatima. At that time, I asked our people to live this consecration by observing what our Blessed Mother asked of us there. I now ask our priests and people to engage in prayer, penance and adoration as an act of reparation for sins against chastity and the reverence due to the Blessed Sacrament, in accordance with our Lady’s wishes.

I repeat here what I asked of you then, and implore you even more earnestly to join me in:

• Praying the rosary daily – and for families, to pray the rosary as a family at least once a week; • Practicing Friday penance by abstaining from eating meat and one other additional act of fasting (e.g., another form of food or drink, or skipping a meal); • Spending one hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at least once a week.

After consulting with the Presbyteral Council of the Archdiocese and my Cabinet, moreover, I will designate a day when together we will make an act of reparation, and how that will be conducted. While I pledge to attend to policies and their observance, we all must be engaged at this time on the spiritual level. Without prayer, penance and adoration in reparation for the horrendous sins rampant in our Church for very many years now, any efforts of the temporal order will be meaningless.

In the meantime, I ask you, our people to stay close to your parish priest. Our priests make great sacrifices to serve their people with generosity and compassion. They are there for you, attentive to providing you pastoral care. I am grateful to them for their labors in the Lord’s vineyard, and pray that the divine assistance may be with them as they minister to you during this time of crisis.

A Prayer for Victims

God of endless love, ever caring, ever strong, always present, always just: You gave your only Son over to suffering and death.

Gentle Jesus, shepherd of peace, join to your own suffering the pain of all who have been hurt in body, mind, and spirit, by those who betrayed the trust placed in them. Hear our cries as we agonize over the harm done to our brothers and sisters. Breathe wisdom into our prayers, soothe restless hearts with hope, steady shaken spirits with faith: Show us the way to justice and wholeness, enlightened by truth and enfolded in your mercy.